Russia aims to exit torture prevention convention, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry reacts
Photo: Russia wants to withdraw from the Convention on the Prevention of Torture, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry responds (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
Russia is planning to withdraw from the European Convention on the Prevention of Torture. This move by the Kremlin is essentially an admission of guilt, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine draws the attention of the international community to the decision of the Government of the Russian Federation to initiate the denunciation of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment," the ministry says.
The ministry noted that this step is effectively an admission of a crime - a systematic practice of torture and an attempt to evade accountability for gross human rights violations.
"Today’s Russia is a territory of lawlessness and degradation of human dignity. The decision to withdraw from the Convention against Torture only consolidates this reality and firmly places Russia among those states for which human life and dignity mean nothing," the MFA states.
Unlike most other international treaties in this area, the convention includes a preventive mechanism, allowing the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture to conduct both regular and surprise visits to places of detention in order to directly inspect conditions and treatment of detainees.
Ukraine insists on Russia’s exclusion from Council of Europe bodies
"Since February 2022, Ukraine has consistently insisted, and continues to insist, on Russia’s exclusion from all cooperation mechanisms within the Council of Europe. This is based on the deep awareness that Russia has turned into a totalitarian state dominated by a repressive apparatus," the ministry emphasized.
The ministry added that, at the same time, Russia has effectively undermined the convention’s mechanism, failing to participate meaningfully in its work and denying experts access to its territory to study and document the situation regarding torture.
"Accountability of the aggressor state for its numerous crimes, including torture, must be inevitable. Ukraine calls for the swift and effective use of international accountability mechanisms and urges the international community to act decisively and without delay," the MFA added.
European Convention for the Prevention of Torture
The European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is an international treaty of the Council of Europe. It was adopted in 1987 and entered into force in 1989.
The document created a unique mechanism of independent monitoring of places of detention: prisons, pre-trial detention centers, psychiatric institutions, military units, etc. For this purpose, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) was established, whose experts carry out regular and unannounced inspections, after which they prepare reports and recommendations for member states.
As of today, the Convention has been ratified by 46 countries (all Council of Europe members except Belarus), making it one of the broadest human rights mechanisms in Europe.
Russia ratified the Convention in 1998. But after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it was expelled from the Council of Europe, of which it had been a member for 26 years. Since then, the country has remained a participant in the convention only formally.
The European Committee reported that Moscow did not respond to requests for cooperation. For example, it did not provide information on troubling cases such as the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
